Australia day started out as overcast and cool as we headed
for the Lakes and the Upper Coorong. Our first tick of the weekend
were adult and juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagles on Poltalloch Plains.
Waterfowl was quite abundant in the area but we were specifically looking for
big waders.
As we headed down the Coorong a large lagoon just South of
Parnaka Point had approximately 250 Red-necked Avocets and 3 Banded Stilts in
breeding plumage. The next lagoon on got us excited as we had
finally found some waders. About 2500 birds consisting of
Red-necked Stints, Curlew Sandpipers, Sharpies and a solitary Greenshank.
We continued along the coast to Robe and there were still no big waders,
however being a long weekend there were so many people.
We decided to head inland and camped in Mary Seymour CP
overnight. A short walk in the morning added White-throated
Treecreeper, Southern Emu-Wren and 12 Blue-winged Parrots amongst a few other
species.
After spending a few hours at the Mt Gambier hospital
getting Dave’s ear infection seen too, we headed for Caroline State
Forest. Three white-throated Needletails gave us good but fleeting
views as they flew over quite high up. An evening session
spotlighting produced 2 Boobook Owls and numerous Brush and Ring-tailed
Possums.
An early morning stop at Donovans Landing Lookout (before
all the holiday makers were on the water) saw a lone Azure Kingfisher on the
opposite of the Glenelg River. The rest of the day was spent
exploring different areas in the South East. Picaninnie Ponds beach
produced 17 adult and juvenile Kelp Gulls and at Pick Swamp we saw the resident Striated
Fieldwrens. No Bittern today though. Danger Point had
good numbers of small waders and a pair of breeding Little Terns but still none of the
elusive big waders. French point finally produced
Pacific Golden Plover and 2 Gray-tailed Tattlers.
We visited Telford Scrub late in the day where we saw our first
Eastern Yellow Robins for the year and an echidna of which I had not seen for a number of years.
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| Donovan's Landing on the Glenelg River |
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| Blue-winged Parrot at Picaninnie Ponds |
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| Picaninnie Beach |
Our campsite for the night was in Bangham CP.
Unfortunately, nothing was flowering here and a short walk in the morning did
not yield anything but what you would expect to be
here. We made the call to head to Tolderol GR after
hearing about a very special bird. On arrival at Tolderol we met up
with Colin Rogers and started a long hot wait in the blistering heat standing
on our tailgate and watching. For the first hour the most
exciting thing we saw was a Tiger Snake crossing the track. Then
after 90 minutes great but brief views of a flying Black-backed
Bittern. This bird is suspected to have a nest and had been
seen on numerous occasions over the last week, Interestingly,
after our sighting it was not seen again despite long hours staking out the
site. We left Colin to continue his monitoring of the birds
activities and headed for Sugars beach where Common Terns had been seen the day
before. The area was covered in Crested, Whiskered,
Little and Fairy Terns. We ended up wading through the water
to get closer to the roosting birds and finally managed to observe 2 Common
Terns.
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| Common Tern at Murray Mouth |
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| Crested Tern at Murray Mouth |
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| Fairy Tern at Murray Mouth |
We had a fantastic four days where we added 30+ birds to our lists.
No birding next weekend again as work commitments get in the
way.
